Service Mark

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I like the way blogs unravel..
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Making a blog is very similar to live theatre in that every post is a rehearsal for an end product you will never attain. If the show continues, the discovery will continue.
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I titled this blog Junction home Services because I wanted to have a place online to represent my business. I turned around and nick named it Junction Box because I want the business to be all encompassing. In other words I would like to bring all of my interests under one header.
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Initially I had intended to change the company name to Junction Home Services from Strange Renovations. But after shining my lamp on the pro’s and con’s of such a change I believe what I would like to do instead is make “Junction Home Services” a service mark for a suite of services provided by Strange Renovations.
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One of the requirements for registering a service mark is that you have to be able to accurately describe what services you plan to perform. So, it now appears that this blog, intended to represent my business, has grown into a vehicle to help me define it.
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Blog, blog, on the screen, what will those services be?
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So far I have:
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*Home inspector – Will require schooling’s and certifications and continuing to purchase tools that will help me do the job better.
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* Green Building consultant – More studies and certification… This one is fairly long term; I am in no rush to ride any waves. It is something I have always been interested in and want to include.
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* House Historian – I have mentioned before that I am a documentarian by nature . I want to hone and own this impetus and apply it to houses. What I find really thrilling about this one is it could be a family affair. Panchia has a working knowledge of the agencies which keep records in Georgetown. She knows where to look and has the curiosity to really follow her nose. I share that curiosity, if not her meticulous mind, and would be very comfortable with another aspect of detective work - the personal interview. Add to this that interviews could be recorded and produced oral histories of a home or property and this idea simply blossoms for me by bringing in my interest’s of photography and audio recording. When I first had this notion I went to the web and typed in “Home Historian” and found this article about a woman who sets a wonderful precedent.
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*Property Management –This one I just am not sure about. That should be a red flag, I know but I am just not prepared to rule it out because to some extent I already do this with clients. I think I would have to define my personal meaning of the term.
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*I would like to keep building with an eye toward small homes designed to facilitate future growth.
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And that’s it, for the time being, but time being what it is, I probably ought to give myself a time limit. Why not by end of April 2010 to have a definitive list and a plan to build upon?

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Audio: Stormy Winter Sea

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Several weeks ago Panchia and I were at the beach early in the morning and she suggested I record the sound of waves. I told her I had done some recording on the beach and that wind had been an issue. Since then I have wanted to try again. Today I did so, partially to challenge myself to capture something acceptable under difficult circumstance. The wind was ripping and the visiblity poor on the beach today in Fenwick Island Delaware. I kept the microphone sheltered by the folds of my Fireman's Chore. I transferred the resulting recording into the computer and used Izotope Ozone to master it. This is an active ocean whose sound is kept close by the fog. Thanks for listening.

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Snow Show

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My Budda

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Effrim Williams Morgan was brought to my house in a box. He had a bunch of names in his lifetime but Effrim Williams was his formal one. He didn’t like people smoking around him. It made his lip rise up and his nose wrinkle so he looked vicious. A smoker would say "Whoa, is that dog going to bite me?" "No" I would say confidently, "What I know about kindness I learned from him."

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Eff had a plastic dolphin collection. He started collecting them when he worked with me painting a house in Rehoboth. I looked down from the ladder and thought “what’s he got in his mouth?” It was a plastic dolphin. Later he brought an identical one to me as if he had found a bush nearby that grew them. He loved the dolphin twins. He especially loved when I told him they were nice. I bought him another plastic dolphin that had teeth.

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There were times we called him Old Ned which was funny cause he was a nothing of a devil. He was, however, an Officer, checking out any and all altercations as an expert witness and a disciple of fair and square.

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When his name was Ned Grass he wore a baggy baseball uniform and pitched in sepia stadiums.

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When he was my Budda I was never alone.

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He was one in twenty five thousand.

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I sure do love my Budda.

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_--= Indian River (2) Bridge Project=--_

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Old and New # 1

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_--=Indian River (1) Bridge Project=--_

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Grand Opening?

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On route 113, in Millsboro Delaware, set back off the highway is a brand new Lowes Store. The other day I asked my mother, who drives by there quite a bit, if the new Lowes was open? She did not know.
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I went to the website which listed the Millsboro Lowes and gave hours but no indication of the store being new. No “Welcome aboard Millsboro!” or home page touting “Our newest store!” just a description like the other descriptions. Maybe it was open then, I called the number and got a shrill fax machine.

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Later I asked my wife, who also passes there daily, if the Lowes was open? She said "It might be".
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It turns out it is.
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Lewes: The Barn on Kings Highway

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Canon and Grace - 1st film

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This short film is a celebration.

It is the result of a successful migration of my audio/visual programs to my laptop from a computer which mechanically was on its way out the door. The canon shoots in the Mac movie format, I am on PC but thankfully my video program understands many languages. I originally purchased Sony Vegas for its audio multi-tracking capabilities but it is really nice to see the investment continue to pay off with video. Also, my previous experience with the program made the three layered editing here go quickly and smoothly; loading it up to You Tube took longer. Tonight my computer really is a junction box.

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The music is from Christopher O’Reilly plays Radiohead.

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Plan

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Whitey Ford had a pretty good time walking on the plan I was trying to photograph. My desire to take quality photos of plans and documents too large to scan was a big part of why I invested in a new camera. I like the fact that we can now store this type of thing electronically and lose the bulky original. I spent a good portion of the recent cold snap reorganizing my filing system to accomodate such storage. My desktop now includes Current and Upcoming sections where folders are stored for each job we are doing. Inside the job folders are dedicated files which cover all aspects of a project. When the project is complete these job specific folders will be moved to the home folder for each customer.
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Each home folder will include a "Background"folder that can be as extensive as a customer likes.
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The background folder is broken into three categories: Documents and prints, pictures and a details folder to store information on folks who worked on the house, previous owners and the structures history. Also I have included a testimonial folder for folk's who would like to include sound recordings of their homes oral history. We have the capabilitiy to spontaneously create a very good quality sound recording in the field.
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Not every homeowner I work with will want to keep a detailed record of their home but for those that do I will continue working on a system which will make it both possible and efficient.
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Whitey Ford, on the other hand, couldn't care less about filing systems or plans.
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